Chiaroscuro
by Sword Pen
Summary: Was science so far removed from the heart that an astonishing breakthrough came at he price of her own? Vittoria angst, possible RobertVittoria. PreDa Vinci Code. Canon.


**Disclaimer:** If I was Dan Brown, I would be making mega-bucks off _The Solomon Key_ and not typing "Chiaroscuro" on a demented computer.

**A/N:** Yes, I know some of this fic paraphrases that which Dan Brown has already written. Bear with me. There is more coming unless you all hate it. I've taken some time off from my DVC fanfiction to create this, and I'd like to hear whether it's worth my time, even if you do hate it.

Tell me nicely, though. My damn computer's already overheating. XD

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**Inspiration:**

"_If I could be close beside you,_

_If I could be where you are,_

_If I could reach out and touch you_

_And bring you back home…"_

-Enya, "If I Could be Where You Are"

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Chiaroscuro: Prices Paid**

Vittoria Vetra heard herself sobbing. She recalled running after him silently begging him not to leave her, not to go where she couldn't follow…

_Robert._

She glimpsed his face one last time as the helicopter door clicked shut, firmly, coldly, _permanently_… Their eyes locked… _if only a moment could last a lifetime_… and he was gone.

_Entombed. _

She could only watch, numb with disbelief, as her heart cried out, "Oh, God! Please take me with you! Please don't leave me like this… not now, not tonight… give me just one morning."

But Robert Langdon and Carlo Ventresca ascended, _literally toward heaven_, and Vittoria felt herself spiraling deeper into her own hell.

Dazed, she collapsed onto a bench, shaking as she buried her face in her hands. The crowd was screaming; she heard those screams inside her, tearing at her soul.

_All my fault…_

She had never intended to create a weapon of mass destruction. She had intended to help people. _Daddy, where are you? I need you._

She knew the answer. Kind, compassionate Leonardo Vetra. Mutilated. Dead. _Also my fault…_ _quarter of a gram… five kilotons… none of this would have happened… _At least he would never witness the nightmare that had become her whole reality.

All night, she had drawn on the gentle strength in the American's gentle blue eyes. The last of her lifelines was gone, and she was drifting out to sea…

Midnight.

There was a brilliant flash of light, and Vittoria felt the terror in the square intensify a hundredfold.

Horrified shrieks, searing heat, and her own agonized feelings…

Shame. Guilt.

_Tell me, Lord, is this Hell? _

The antimatter blast receded, the white fire disappearing, and with it, Robert Langdon.

_No._ It wasn't supposed to end this was. They had known each other for under twelve hours. There was so much left unsaid. She had never felt the warmth of his arms around her, or the touch of his mouth against hers. She had never told him how much she needed him beside her.

He seemed almost like a part of her, like a piece of her heart that had been cruelly severed, leaving a vast, empty void.

Was science so far removed from the heart that an astonishing breakthrough had come at the price of her own? Was this her penance?

She had learned that the world was a chiaroscuro… matter, antimatter… benefits, bombs… _our lives, his_…

_"Some things are worth dieing for." _

_Max... Why did you die for this madness? Why did you force others to die for it as well?_

Surely there had been enough darkness tonight. Surely Robert Langdon had not needed to die in this war, a war that was not his own.

_"Do you believe in God, Mr. Langdon?"_

_Do I believe in God? After all this..._

Would he… did he hate her in those last moments? Could he have forgiven her for her part in this nightmare? Could she forgive herself?

There would have been no time for thought. He would have been instantly vaporized. _But that was without the countdown._

Three minutes…

Two…

One…

Oblivion.

Annihilation.

_Oh, God…_

Vittoria felt herself falling, freezing, becoming numb. They were singing in St. Peter's Square…

Vittoria hardly noticed. She seemed to exist outside the network of living things, as though she had severed the threads of vitality that bound everything together.

A wild thought slipped through her mind. Was the gun still in her pocket?

No, the Hassassin had taken it from her.

He had attempted to take so much more from her... For a split second, she felt his hands wander over her bare skin again, his breath hot against her neck... _"This blade cut out your father's eye."_

She blocked the thoughts from her mind. Robert had come for her. She had endangered him then, as well. Perhaps, if he han't rescued her, he could have stopped Kohler, could have found the antimatter in time. Perhaps...

She blocked those thoughts from her mind, too, leaving...

_Robert..._

_Robert, forgive me_.

Silence.

Pain.

Darkness.

and then...

Nothing.


End file.
